The owner of a gun range in southern New Jersey has been peppered by requests to remove billboards that some say mock NFL players who kneel during the national anthem, but he insists on keeping them in place.

“It has absolutely nothing to do with race,” said Wesley Aducat, owner of South Jersey Shooting Club, per The Philadelphia Inquirer. “It’s just support for our veterans.”

The billboards depict the silhouette of a person shooting a rifle in a kneeling position alongside the caption, “The only time we take a knee…”

Please call!
This billboard on Rt. 73 in Voorhees. Tell them this billboard is racist. Taking a knee is a protest to say NO to police brutality. The women of SJWPC are taking a knee to support black and brown people.Take it down!The Manager is Carmen Console: 609-704-9500.

Aducat said he views kneeling during the anthem as inappropriate in part because some of the club’s members are veterans. However, he supports the players’ right to protest.

Nevertheless, a local chapter of the NAACP said Aducat doesn’t understand the purpose of the kneeling.

“We’re talking about police murdering unarmed black people,” NAACP member Keith Benson Sr. said. “[The South Jersey Shooting Club] deserve[s] all the disrespect they’re going to get as a result of putting it up. But they probably thought they were clever. They probably thought they were strong, patriotic Americans.”

“We’re living in a very difficult time right now. People are trying to stand up for black and brown people to say, ‘Hey this is not right,’” said a member of South Jersey Women for Progressive Change, a newly formed group. “That sign really is just mocking the idea of taking a knee.”

The club’s Facebook page has seen comments both critical of and supporting the billboards.